One nation, including God. - On Two Wings Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding - book review

Commonweal, Feb 22, 2002 by Wilson Carey McWilliams

Although Novak trumpets the achievement of the Framers, he recognizes that, relying on religion, they left it without public nurturance. The Constitution and the laws rely primarily on interests, just as Jefferson did in his letter to Peter Carr. And the laws teach: Americans, Tocqueville found, justified almost everything they did by reference to the principle of "interest rightly understood." Even where they were public-spirited or altruistic, Tocqueville noted, Americans were inclined to "honor their philosophy"--the self-seeking individualism of Enlightenment liberalism--rather than themselves. And while Tocqueville valued "interest rightly understood" as a check on simple selfishness, he also saw the danger that, over the years, America's public philosophy would weaken the language--and hence the practice--of faith and duty in civic life.

So it has, and whatever its faults, Michael Novak's book has the towering virtue of helping Americans to rediscover that indispensable voice.

Wilson Carey McWilliams, a regular Commonweal contributor, teaches political philosophy at Rutgers.